


Fall From Grace

by blondsak, seekrest



Series: CH3CH2CI [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: (Or is it?), (he still has a heart condition!), (it’s us what do you expect), Angst with a Happy Ending, BAMF Peter Parker, Ethyl Chloride: Medium Level, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Hurt Peter Parker, Panicked Tony Stark, Peter Parker is a Little Shit, Whump, corrupting movie canon with comics canon because of who we are as people, don’t worry everything is fine in the end, intentional poisoning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:33:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26443495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blondsak/pseuds/blondsak, https://archiveofourown.org/users/seekrest/pseuds/seekrest
Summary: “Pete? What’s going on?” he distantly hears Ned say, his vision blurring and his senses still going haywire as he dodges another blow from Rhino.“I’m fine,” Peter wheezes, only to get slammed against a building’s wall by the tail of Scorpion’s suit - crying out again when the end point stings him straight in the chest.“Peter! Peter, are you okay?”His eyes flutter, swallowing down the bile he feels in the back of his throat as Scorpion lets him loose - poised and ready for another attack only for Peter’s grip to loosen, falling down to the street below.
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: CH3CH2CI [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1921798
Comments: 191
Kudos: 390





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [killerqueenwrites](https://archiveofourown.org/users/killerqueenwrites/gifts).



> Happy birthday killerqueenwrites!!!! We love you and hope you enjoy a little tribute to you for your birthday - seeksak style ;)
> 
> This is a sequel to our fic [Flying High](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25024054). You don’t have to have read the first one to understand but we hope you do :)

_“Do you think MJ knows you’re Spider-Man?”_

Peter almost misses his next swing, stuttering as he just barely sends out another web in time. 

“What? Why? Did she say something?” Peter asks, wishing that he could see Ned’s facial expressions as he swings through the air. 

_“No. Well, not really,”_ Ned says unhelpfully, a flare of panic rushing through Peter as Ned continues, _“she asked if I wanted to study with her for Trig.”_

Peter squints underneath the mask, the natural dip and rhythm of swinging through the air making the blood rush to his head. A couple of tourists see him and wave, Peter waving back as he asks, “That’s a good thing right? She’s good at Trig.”

Peter smiles to himself, his stomach fluttering as he thinks, _she’s good at everything._

His attempt to try out for the track team had been an abject failure - getting knocked out by a discus and then proceeding to go on a drug induced ramble that he’d largely liked to forget - had at least led to two good things. 

The first was a long-winded but genuine apology from Flash, one where he swore and up and down that knocking him unconscious was an accident. Peter believed him from the look in his eye and ever since, Flash had been almost _nice_ to him. 

He still teased the shit out of him in Decathlon practice, sure but Peter could sense the change between them - rereading the text Flash had sent him while he was in the medbay and getting the distinct impression that Michelle had been right when she said Flash was convinced he’d murdered him. 

Hadn’t even come close, though Peter didn’t want to think of what would’ve happened if Flash got his hands on the video footage of Peter being drugged out of his mind in the medbay. Even Flash would have his limits and now with the smallest bit of time that had passed, even Peter thought it was _kind_ of funny. 

The second was his friendship with Michelle - teetering closer and closer to something that caused Peter’s stomach to twist into knots in the best way, much to Ned’s slight annoyance that neither of them had made the first move.

 _“I hope she has figured it out. It’d be nice to have someone to talk about FOS stuff with,”_ Ned says, throwing Peter of his thoughts as he swings once more. 

“FOS?” Peter asks, hearing Ned hum happily on the other line.

 _“Friend of Spider-Man. You know, the_ _usual—_ “ Ned says flippantly, Peter grinning as he continues, _“Fighting bad guys, recon. Post-patrol snacks.”_

“Oh man, today’s Thursday, right? Did your mom make _turon_ again?”

 _“Yeah,”_ Ned sighs dreamily, Peter’s stomach grumbling now not from the memory of Michelle’s smile but the chance to eat one of his favorite desserts, _“but you better hurry. Kat says if you don’t get here by nine, she’s eating your half.”_

“You tell Kat to keep her hands off my _turon_ ,” Peter says with a huff, thinking of the last time Ned’s little sister snatched his plate out from under him.

Ned snickers on the other line, going to say something more when Peter’s senses scream at him - turning to the sensation when he hears a massive roar. 

He sees Rhino immediately, going to swing towards him only for his senses to go completely haywire - the fraction of a second that he’s distracted immediately followed by a sharp, painful jab to his right thigh.

Peter cries out in pain, looking down to it only to see Scorpion - decked out in some suit Peter’s never seen before - smiling menacingly at him.

“Long time no see _Spider-Man_ ,” he calls out, lunging for him as Peter does a backwards flip - barely holding back a cry for the burning sensation crawling through his veins.

It’s as if he’s been set on fire from the inside out, Peter almost feeling whatever Scorpion had shot him with traveling through his veins as he swings in another direction. 

Peter’s used to swinging himself through the air on the daily, his former fear of heights and of rollercoasters long gone from having been Spider-Man for the better half of a year. But this immediately sends him back in time - eight years old and terrified at Coney Island with Ben - the whole world feeling like it’s shifted off his axis as he scrambles away from Rhino and Scorpion. 

The soft orange glow from the sunset was rapidly changing colors - the buildings around him shimmering and the air around him feeling syrupy, like Peter could reach a hand out and manipulate it. He has just enough presence of mind to swing away from getting hit by something Rhino throws at him, though even that starts to already feel like it’s fading as he gasps. 

_“Pete? What’s going on?”_ he distantly hears Ned say, his vision blurring and his senses continuing to go haywire as he just barely dodges another blow from Rhino - Scorpion’s cackle sounding distorted as he swings.

“I’m fine, just—a little thigh stab,” Peter wheezes, only to get slammed against a building wall by the tail of Scorpion’s suit - crying out again when the end point stings him straight in the chest.

_“Peter! Peter, are you okay?”_

His eyes flutter, swallowing down the bile he feels in the back of his throat as Scorpion let’s him loose - poised and ready for another attack only for Peter’s grip to loosen, falling down to the street below.

He frantically sends out another web, only for Rhino to pass through it - Peter going into free fall for a few more seconds as his mind swarms.

The city lights are just as distorted as Scorpion’s taunts, blurring together as Peter just barely saves himself from smacking head first into the pavement - distantly hearing Ned’s voice in the background getting more and more frantic. 

“I’m fi—fine,” Peter slurs, swinging himself up into the air and back into the fight. 

* * *

The phone call comes in at a little past eight. 

For once Tony’s not in the lab, but up in the penthouse putting together dinner for when Pepper finally manages to pull herself away from the office—looking forward to surprising her with an impromptu date night. While there was no doubt Tony could be a workaholic when a project caught his attention, Pepper wasn’t exactly known for having the perfect work/life balance either. Which made the thoughtful surprises they occasionally did for the other—dinner dates, weekend getaways, massages to relax and more—even more important. 

Tony’s just getting the lasagna pan into the oven, humming the tune of _Volare (nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu)_ —one of his mother’s favorite songs—and feeling slightly impressed with himself for how perfectly everything is coming together, when his phone starts to chime.

“Bet that’s Pep,” he murmurs to himself, taking off his oven mitts and grabbing it without checking. “Hi sweetums, I was just about to text you. When are–”

_“Mr. Stark? This is–”_

“Ned. Sorry about that opener, I thought you were Pepper,” Tony says casually, rounding the kitchen island and going over to the table—plucking up one of the forks and rubbing it against his shirt to get rid of a small smudge he spots. “How’s the Guy in the Chair doing these days?”

_“I’m good, but–”_

“Are the Tagalog lessons going well?” Tony continues, fixing a napkin until it’s just right. “Y’know, you mentioning those actually got me thinking about brushing up on my Italian and–”

_“We don’t have time for this. Peter’s in trouble!”_

“What?” Tony instantly sobers, waving a hand in the air at FRIDAY. “Fri, bring up Spider-Man’s location and vitals.” 

Instantly a hologram showing a map of a tiny, blinking Spider-Man mask on the very western edge of Queens appears along with a list of Peter’s health stats, Tony assessing the latter with a frown. “His heart rate is through the roof—is he fighting?”

_“He is, with Rhino and Scorpion, but–”_

“Both of them? Shit,” Tony interrupts, rubbing a hand over his face only to blanch when he sees the list of injuries, including punctures to his thigh and chest. A chest wound in particular could be catastrophic if it was deep enough, he knows. “Looks like he’s already injured too.”

_“It’s more than that, Mr. Stark. He’s acting really weird—like, slurring his words and not reacting when I ask questions. I think Scorpion injected him with something.”_

Tony curses, racing out onto the balcony—waving another hand to let FRIDAY know to send a suit from the lab. “Alright Ned, I’m on it. Just—stay on the line with him, okay? Tell him I’ll be there in”—Tony does some quick math—”about seventy seconds.”

He doesn’t wait for Ned to reply before letting his phone clatter to the balcony floor and leaping off the side of the tower. He usually finds it fun to just jump and wait for a suit to engulf him—knows it makes Pepper shake her head in exasperation, not to mention the whole team scoff at his apparent inability not to show off a bit—but right now he’s all business, his worry for Peter overtaking everything else. 

The suit appears almost instantaneously, wrapping around him in mid-air, FRIDAY bringing up the same map and stats on his HUD that she had in the kitchen—only for Tony to now see a growing list of injuries start piling up beneath. Contusions, punctures, broken ribs—none are good. In fact, they’re all potentially very, _very_ bad.

“Just get the hell outta there, Pete,” Tony finds himself pleading to nobody, biting back another curse as he watches the mask blip up and down the same street. It’s taking everything in him not to just hop onto the kid and Ned’s shared comm and order him to retreat. But if Peter is as out of it as Ned says, well—chances are adding Tony to the conversation would only distract and confuse him, possibly at a crucial moment when he—when _none_ of them—can afford it. He’ll have to wait until he’s closer to talk directly to the kid.

Gritting his teeth, Tony urges the suit to go faster, willing himself to focus on the Spidey mask jumping around the map and not the increasingly concerning alerts flooding the other side of his screen. 

Because Peter was going to be fine. Tony would get there before Rhino or Scorpion managed to land a killing blow, he _would._ And then he and Bruce would figure out what—if anything—the kid had been injected with and take care of that too. There was simply no other acceptable outcome. 

“I’m coming, kid,” Tony says, more to reassure himself than anything else. “Hang in there.”

* * *

“Shit,” Peter mutters to himself, shivering slightly as he haphazardly lands on a light pole, missing it by a few feet and hitting it straight on across his midsection.

_“Peter, listen. I called Mr. Stark, he’s on his way.”_

“Why’d— why’s y’u do that?” Peter asks, his mouth feeling like there’s cotton stuffed in it, the burning sensation he’d felt not five seconds before now replaced with ice. He shivers as he braces himself against the pole, Scorpion’s muffled yells from underneath him drowned out by Rhino’s roar.

Peter doesn’t even remember taking him out, blank spaces in his memory as he scrambles into a crouch. One minute he was swinging a punch towards Scorpion and in the next he was in the air, Peter feeling more and more disoriented as time continued to pass. 

Yet the only indication that time has passed at all is the inky blackness of the sky around him, a part of Peter gently whispering that it hadn’t been that much time at all. 

He shoves that down in favor of a strong instinct, Rhino barreling towards him as he swings away - the light pole he was on decimated as Scorpion yells out, “You idiot, you almost crushed me!”

“GET OUT OF WAY!” Rhino yells back, some comeback forming in the back of Peter’s mind only for it to get lost in translation - losing track of whatever it is that he was going to say as he swings in the opposite direction. 

_“Peter, listen to me, okay man? You’re gonna be okay.”_

“Ned?” Peter asks, his eyebrows furrowing underneath the mask as he lands on yet another light pole - Rhino and Scorpion still arguing giving Peter the briefest moment of reprieve. “Where—are you here?”

 _“No, Peter I’m—I’m at home,”_ Ned says, Peter thinking he almost sounds _scared_ \- the sound of it only causing Peter’s own nerves to unravel. 

“Are y-you ‘kay? Where… where are you?” Peter asks, looking around for where Ned could be. 

_“Peter? Peter what--”_

“Is-- where are you? Ned, where’s--” Peter groans, pressing a hand to his forehead as he tries to make sense of what’s happening around him. His chest hurts but he can’t remember why, every breath painful and wheezy.

His skin is fire and yet his veins are like ice, shivering so violently that he’s not sure how long he can stay atop the light pole yet feeling like he’d been through a rainstorm - the sweat gathering on the back of his neck underneath his mask starting to bother him. 

It reminds him of the time that Michelle had put her hair up once in class, Peter getting to see the clasp of a necklace - one that he’d always meant to ask her about but never got the chance to.

His stomach drops, Rhino’s roar coming back in full force as he frantically looks around. 

“MJ?” he asks to no one, looking around as Ned’s voice starts to come back into focus.

_“MJ? Pete, what are you--”_

“MJ’s she’s-- she’s… in trouble,” Peter slurs, making a face as he tried to get his tongue work right. “Y’u and MJ, you’re—where are you?” 

He looks around once more, only for everything in him to tell him to _move_ \- leaping off the light pole purely on instinct, hearing a crash in the distance as he sends out another web - only for it to land on nothing and Peter to go tumbling to the ground.

He hits the pavement hard, his head snapping against the dark asphalt. Peter groans, the asphalt changing colors from black to blue to an unearthly shade of green - Peter staring at it in wonder when another voice cuts through everything. 

_“Kid? You with me?”_

“M’sr St’rk? What--”

_“Listen to me, Underoos. I’m on my way. I need you to stay focused and in one piece until I get there.”_

“Y’re wha’? But ‘m–” Peter’s reply is cut short by a groan followed shortly by more wheezing as he stands once again, the ground beneath him shaking from what he can only guess is an earthquake. He turns just in time to see Rhino rushing straight towards him, Peter blinking at him in confusion. 

_“Kid? Peter?”_

“SPIDER-MAN, YOU WILL--” 

Rhino’s cut off by Peter throwing a hand out, landing a punch square across his chest that sends Rhino flying. He watches as Rhino hits the building wall across them, cracking it slightly as Peter winces - only to groan again as he puts a hand to his head. 

_“Peter!? What’s happening?”_

The panic he felt just a few seconds before comes back in full force, stumbling slightly as he frantically looks around. 

“Ned? Ned, where’s-- wh’re you and MJ?”

 _“Peter, we’re fine. I’m fine,”_ Ned hurriedly says, Peter frowning when he hears Tony’s voice somewhere else in the distance. 

_“Kid, I need you to stay put—that’s an order. I’m coming right towards you, just hang on.”_

“M’sr Stark? What’re you… bu’ wait… Ned if-- you okay where’s… where’s MJ?” Peter asks, unable to focus on anything anymore but the panic and the bile all bubbling right back up into his throat. It’s like a rock has been placed on his chest even if he’s standing up right, gasping for air as he wheezes. Had he hurt it somehow? He can’t remember. 

Peter stumbles forward, sending a hand out and launching himself into the air. He immediately regrets it, a wave of nausea passing over him until he lands against the side of a building - bracing himself on his hands and his knees. 

Peter’s head moves out of his own accord, the nausea now paired with an overwhelming dizziness as he looks around. 

He can’t see Ned or MJ anywhere, much less Mr. Stark - the latter of which is yelling something at him that try as he might, Peter can’t decipher.

Peter closes his eyes but finds there’s no relief in the sensation - squeezing them even tighter to try and make whatever’s making him feel like he’s gonna jump out of his skin go away. 

It doesn’t, Peter opening his eyes when a new sensation starts to take over, blearily looking at his fingers as the wall underneath him starts to shake. 

It happens in a second. 

One moment Peter is holding on to the side of the building, the bricks changing into obscene colors of blue and green as Peter frowns. 

Then the bricks are gone, Peter’s grip giving way as whatever power that was holding him to the wall disappears with them. 

The last thing he hears before he slips into the darkness are Tony’s screams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :))
> 
> We love it when people scream at us in the comments. Come hang out with us on tumblr: [blondsak](https://blondsak.tumblr.com) and [seekrest](https://seek-rest.tumblr.com).


	2. Chapter 2

It’s like something out of Tony’s worst nightmares.

No, scratch that. It  _ is  _ one of Tony’s worst nightmares, come to life.

He’d thought listening to Peter grow increasingly incoherent over the comm—not to mention hearing the teenager pant from exhaustion and his  _ goddamn punctured chest _ —had been awful enough. That realizing that whatever poison was flowing through Peter’s veins seemed to be causing his powers to blip in and out and Tony  _ wasn’t there yet _ was hell.

But no, neither of those were even close. No, true hell is watching from a distance ( _ 4.27 seconds, too far, too far _ ) as Peter suddenly loses his grip on the building he was clinging to, with Rhino and Scorpion still on their feet and advancing to the spot right below the kid.

Tony doesn’t even know what he screams out, if it’s even words, because all he can think is that he’s not close enough, he’s not going to catch the kid in time, and he can already see what’s going to happen—that even if Peter somehow survives the crash to the pavement, Rhino will be ready with a raised mechanical foot to crush his ribs in like he’s nothing but an actual bug, and isn’t this exactly what Tony always feared, what made him wake up in the middle of the night sweating, calling out _ no, don’t!  _ like that would change the outcome?

There’s no changing the outcome now, and Tony screams again even as he boosts his thrusters, and Ned’s saying something but Tony can’t hear it, can’t spare a single thought to it because there’s only room for one person in his brain right now, Peter’s name ghosting on his trembling lips as he watches the kid fall ( _ three seconds _ ) and fall ( _ two _ ) and fall ( _ one _ ) until he meets the ground ( _ out of time, too late, too late _ ) and there’s no denying the sound of bones cracking against pavement over the comm, and something in Tony snaps like a wishbone with it, rage coming to the forefront. 

Through a haze of red he sees Rhino’s raised foot, sending out a beam and crying out a victorious taunt when that foot is suddenly no more, completely vaporized to dust and you’d think it was an actual appendage by the way the villain screams as he collapses sideways. But it’s not over yet, Scorpion has his tail raised, ready to put another hole in his kid and Tony’s simply not having that, these assholes are never touching his kid again if _ he  _ has anything to do with it, and boohoo for them because Tony already made sure months ago that he had a damn  _ lot  _ to do with it. Another beam and the fucking tail is gone too.

And now Tony’s there, finally ( _ too late, too late _ ), and he doesn’t even land on the ground as he scoops the kid up into his arms and shoots back into the sky, and he wants to be relieved but he can’t be, he physically  _ can’t _ be, because his kid is in his arms but he’s not moving, he’s absolutely boneless. If it weren’t for FRIDAY tracking Peter’s vitals on his HUD Tony would think that was it, his greatest failure achieved,  _ Come Say Goodbye to Spider-Man, Queens! Memorial Service this Saturday—Wear red and blue in honor of our fallen neighborhood hero! _

It’s enough to make Tony want to hurl.

“Peter?” he tries, but there’s no response, just wheezing breaths in his ear and stuttering chest movements in his grip, and Tony can see blood bubbling up between his fingers where he has one hand covering the puncture wound. Ned is still there, speaking up again, and this time Tony catches a few words, words like  _ how bad  _ and  _ tower _ and  _ May  _ all spoken in question.

“Yeah kid, I’m taking him to the tower medbay,” Tony says, purposely ignoring the  _ how bad  _ part—Ned needs his protection too, in his own way. “FRIDAY, call May, tell her to get there  _ now.” _

His HUD lights up like Christmas then, silent warnings screaming at him from every corner that Peter’s vitals are crashing and Tony has just enough presence of mind to drop the connection with Ned, not wanting him to be there even over the comm line if things go deep south.

“Stay with me, Pete,” Tony begs, arms tightening in a useless attempt at comfort as he watches the kid’s chest rise and fall like a baby bird’s, too fast and too short but still the most beautiful thing Tony’s seen since Pepper emerged from the fire, since Happy opened bruised eyelids after weeks in a coma, since Rhodey walked across a PT gym room of his own accord. “Don’t you dare stop fighting now, kid. Don’t you even _ think  _ about it!”

The tower is close now, so close, and he can see the medbay level landing, can see the doctors and nurses waiting for him to hand over the precious ( _ so precious _ ) cargo in his arms, and of course that’s right when the kid stops paying attention, stops following orders, stops breathing just like Tony told him precisely  _ not  _ to do. And isn’t that just like Peter Benjamin Parker, never goddamn  _ listening  _ to a thing Tony tells him?

It’s all over quickly after that, Tony landing and he doesn’t even think to keep Peter in his arms, relieved to relinquish him to those who can help him, and he catches Bruce’s eye amidst the group just as they rush Peter through the double doors on a gurney. No words need to be exchanged for his friend to read his mind.

_ Save him. Please, whatever you do, don’t let him die. _

Bruce nods ( _ I’m on it _ ) before he disappears too, and Tony is alone.

* * *

Consciousness becomes an ephemeral concept for Peter. 

It laps at him, like waves along the shore - distant, fuzzy, sliding through his fingers just like sand. 

The first time all he’s aware of is blinding lights flashing, yells in the distance and his body - if he even has one - pulled and tugged at while something like fire burns throughout his veins until the darkness is less something to fear, but a reprieve. 

There are no defined second or third times, patchy images flying in and out of his mind. He hears voices constantly, some firm and demanding while others are soothing. The latter is paired with the feeling of soft hands rifling through his hair, fingernails scratching along his scalp that makes him wonder if he’s awake or still dreaming. 

The burning never goes away, fire and ice battling for control over his senses as he feels like he’s being ripped apart from the inside out - desperately wanting to cry out for release yet feeling immobile when he tries. There are moments when he does, only for sounds like alarms to go off and for the voices around him to grow sharp and worried - a painful whine coming from somewhere that scares him before he’s mercifully pulled back into darkness. 

Peter doesn’t dream or if he does, he doesn’t remember - imagining the voice of Ned rambling about some video game they were meaning to get, of Mr. Stark muttering something to himself that he can’t quite decipher, of May humming with the tell-tale clicks of her needles from some knitting project echoing in the background. 

What convinces Peter that he’s dreaming is MJ’s voice - quiet and much lower than he thinks he’s ever heard it as she rambles about a murder podcast. 

Even in his dreams, her voice is soothing. Enough that Peter begins to think that if this is his life now - indescribable and splitting pain paired with the gentle assurances of the people he loves around him - that maybe it wouldn’t be so bad after all. 

* * *

Peter feels the soft blanket laid over him first, his nose itching being the thing that nudges him back towards wakefulness. He lazily blinks his eyes open, scrunching his face together as he tries to move his arm to scratch the itch. 

His arm is sore and heavy, missing his nose and almost poking his eye out from the dead weight of it. He groans, scrunching his eyes up tighter before letting out a long exhale - looking around the room that he’s in. 

A hospital, or the medbay being most likely - blinking a few times and looking around to find that he’s alone. 

His throat feels dry, achingly so and the itch at his nose is only barely sated when he’s finally able to command his hand to do so. 

Peter brings the hand down and feels exhausted already from the effort, trying and failing to remember what put him here in the first place. 

He doesn’t have to think about it long when May walks in holding a cup of tea, stopping in place when she sees Peter blinking back at her.

“May?” he croaks out, May leaning back to call out, “Tony!” before rushing to him, gently setting her mug of tea down on the bedside table. Mr. Stark runs in not two seconds later, the both of them flanking each side of his bed as May takes his hand.

“Hi sweetheart,” May says, Peter’s eyebrows raising in alarm at how shaky her voice is. She clears her throat, Peter blinking at her in confusion when she asks, “How are you feeling?”

“How… what happened?” he asks, his throat still feeling like he’s swallowed glass - attention turning from May to Mr. Stark, taken aback by the red in his eyes, as if he’d just been crying. 

“What’s the last thing you remember, kid?” Mr. Stark asks, clearing his own throat as Peter tries hard to remember. 

“I— I was fighting,” Peter says, May’s thumb gently caressing the back of his hand as her grip tightens, Peter turning his attention to her as he says, “Ned and MJ were there?”

Peter can feel his heartbeat start to rise just as he hears the heart monitor beep a little faster, trying to sit up only for both May and Mr. Stark to gently push him down as he says, “Are they okay? What happened? Is—”

“Everyone’s fine, Pete,” Mr. Stark says, letting out something that sounds like a mix of a cough and a strangled laugh. “Your friends weren’t there, you were—”

He cuts himself off, Peter watching as Mr. Stark sneaks a glance towards May who looks back at him with an unreadable expression on her face. 

“You were whammied,” Mr. Stark finally says, Peter getting the sense that they’re withholding something from him but not feeling awake or strong enough to argue about it. 

“Whammied?” Peter repeats, May moving her other hand to cradle his face - rifling through his hair as she smiles with tears in her eyes. 

“You’re gonna be okay, sweetheart,” May says, Peter beginning to wonder just what the hell he missed when she says, “Ned and MJ are here to see you. Ned’s mom just dropped the two of them off.”

“See me?” Peter parrots, eyes darting between the two of them. “How long was I out?”

They share a look once again, the air feeling thin until May finally says, “Almost a week, Pete.”

“A  _ week _ ?” Peter scoffs, even if the memory of what exactly brought him here is fuzzy at best. His mind’s working hard to catch up, taking a beat before he asks, “Wait, Ned  _ and _ MJ?”

Mr. Stark nods, moving from his bedside as he says, “Yeah underoos, they’ve been here every day after school. If you’re not ready for visitors then we can—”

“No, I want— can I see them?” Peter asks, his heart thrumming a little harder in his chest. The one solid memory he has of whatever thing that brought him here is the fear that he felt at Ned and MJ being in trouble, a part of him wondering if the dreams of listening to the two of them chatter in the background weren’t dreams after all. 

Tony smiles at that, exiting the room to bring them in when Peter turns back to May - only to frown as she blinks back tears. 

“May, what’s wrong?” he asks, May shaking her head furiously before kissing his forehead - her grip in his hand a little tighter when she leans back.

“Just glad that you’re awake, sweetheart,” she says as she braces her free hand to his chin, gently caressing her thumb across his cheek. 

The doors slide back open, preventing Peter from asking anymore questions when Mr. Stark walks in - trailed closely by Ned and MJ. 

Ned looks immediately relieved to see him, Peter smiling at him only for something in his chest to tighten when he sees MJ - her eyes tinged with the same worry that he saw a few months ago, knocked out by the discus Flash threw. 

It grips him then that if he’s been out for a week, if she’s visiting him  _ here _ at the Tower medbay, that she knows the truth - Peter clearing his throat before saying, “So you know?”

The four of them blink at him before they all laugh, relieving some of the tension in the room that he hadn’t even realized was there. Ned rushes up to his bedside, bringing him into a hug as May takes a step back. Peter wraps his arms around his best friend, burrowing his head into his shoulder before looking up to Michelle, seeing the faintest hint of a smile on her face. 

“Who told you?” he asks, squeezing Ned a little tighter as the smirk turns into a grin. 

“No one told me. I figured it out,” she says, Ned finally releasing his grip on him and bringing his hands to cradle Peter’s face. 

“Dude. Not cool,” he says solemnly, Peter nodding before Ned brings his hands down. 

“We’ll leave you three to catch up,” May says, Peter glancing at her and Mr. Stark. There’s a tightness in their eyes and an uneasiness in their expressions that he desperately wants to understand - a lingering feeling in the back of his mind that there’s something they haven’t shared yet.

But whatever it is, it can wait - especially since Ned and MJ are right here, safe and okay - Peter feeling as something in his chest loosens at the knowledge that everything is fine.

“We’ll be just outside, kid,” Tony says in affirmation, Peter nodding before turning his attention back to Ned and MJ.

“How’d you figure it out?” Peter asked, Michelle shrugging as she moves to sit on the other side of the bed - Peter hating that his heart is attached to a heart monitor as she says, “I mean, it was kind of obvious.”

Peter smiles at that, the two of them staring at each other for apparently a beat too long when Ned clears his throat. Peter looks back at him, seeing the solemn look on Ned’s face as he says, “Not to break this up but, I have some bad news.”

Peter frowns, sitting up to prepare himself when Ned says, “Kat ate your  _ turon _ .”

Peter snorts, the sound making Michelle laugh until Peter and Ned join in - looking at his friends and relishing that no matter what his nightmares had shown him that at least in this moment, they were safe. 

* * *

Tony and May stand in silence together just down the hall, watching through the glass of Peter’s medbay room window as the three teenagers chat and laugh—neither of them quite able to let the kid completely out of their sight yet. However, they both turn at the sound of feet approaching. 

“FRIDAY let me know he was awake,” Bruce says in explanation, pausing to softly smile when he sees Ned and MJ at Peter’s beside. “How’s he doing? Any residual dizziness, grogginess...?”

“No more than usual, thank goodness,” May replies with a wobbly grin. “Thank you so much for helping to save him, Bruce.”

“No need to thank me again, May,” Bruce says rather bashfully, rubbing at his neck. “It was Tony that got him here in time, and the medbay team that did the real work keeping him alive until his healing factor kicked in again.”

“But it was  _ you _ who figured out what we were even dealing with that was making his powers go haywire,” Tony says, nudging Bruce’s shoulder with his own. “I’m with May, pal. Thanks for all you did for him.”

Bruce nods at him in appreciation. “Well, I’m sure I speak for everyone here when I say that we all like Peter and want to see him back in good health. Speaking of, have you gotten a chance to explain what happened?”

“Not yet,” May says, then smiling again, “He heard MJ was here, and that was pretty much the end of him wanting us around.”

“Kid’s got a crush a mile wide,” Tony adds with a chuckle, only to sober. “But don’t worry, that conversation will be happening soon.”

Bruce nods again, then looking between the two of them, asks quietly, “So did you two decide then? If he’ll be allowed to—”

“There’s no  _ allowing _ with Peter when it comes to being Spider-Man,” May interjects firmly, looking back at the kids. “Limiting patrol hours and setting ground rules, sure. But I’m not going to ask him to stop. It would crush him.”

Bruce’s eyes grow stormy. He looks like he’s about to argue, only for Tony to catch his gaze and shake his head minutely. After all, there’s nothing Bruce could say that he hasn’t tried already. Tony watches as the storm recedes from the scientist’s expression, until there’s only resignation with a tinge of concern left. 

“If that’s what you think is best,” Bruce says evenly. “I know I’m not a medical doctor, but all the same—I’d be remiss not to stress once again just how lucky we got this time. Even a few milliliters more of ethyl chloride in that dose he was injected with and, well. I don’t think we’d be watching him talk to his friends right now, certainly.”

“Believe me, we know,” Tony says, forcing himself to push down the memory of how it had felt to hold a dying Peter in his arms as he frantically raced him to the tower. “That’s why I’ve been working on the new suit for him. The nanotech can withstand being pierced by pretty much anything but vibranium. Those assholes after the kid are obviously getting their tech from somewhere but I highly doubt they have access to  _ that.” _

“Doubtful,” Bruce agrees, “but that doesn’t mean they won’t get creative and come up with another way. The ethyl chloride didn’t only manage to mentally incapacitate Peter this time, it also caused his powers to flicker in and out before shutting down completely, for  _ days _ . Now they know how vulnerable Spider-Man is when exposed to it, well—that’s no joke, Tony.”

“Christ, Banner, you think I don’t know that?” Tony snaps, only to close his eyes and sigh tiredly as he scrubs a hand over his face. “Look, I’m sorry, I just—”

“No need to apologize,” Bruce says lightly, understanding and patient as ever. “I know you’ll do everything you can to keep him safe, and you too, May. It’s the villains and criminals I don’t trust, not either of you.” Before May or Tony can reply, he adds, “I’ll be down in my lab if you need me for anything. Please tell Peter I’m glad he’s on the mend.”

“Of course,” May says, Tony watching as she shares a small smile with Bruce before the man turns and heads down the hallway. The two of them go back to watching Peter in silence for a while, before May speaks up again. “You agree with him, don’t you? That Peter should be benched.”

“You know I do, at least until we can figure out a way to make him immune to the drug’s effects,” Tony says mildly. “But I  _ also _ know your kid well enough to know that benching him wouldn’t stick for long anyway.”

May chuckles rather grimly. “No, it wouldn’t.” She glances at Tony, looking uncertain. “I know it’s a huge risk, and maybe I’m a terrible parent to even consider it, but—”

“You’re not a terrible parent, May,” Tony says. “Just a realistic one. And besides, like I just told Bruce—I’m going to do everything I can to make sure Pete stays safe.”

May nods. “I know you will, Tony. I mean it when I say that I’d be a lot more reluctant about letting him go back out there if he didn’t have you in his corner, looking out for him.”

Tony tries to smile at the vote of confidence, but it comes out more of an exhausted grimace. The last week had been complete hell on him. When he’d been awake he’d either been with Peter or working on the design for the kid’s nanosuit, and when he’d been asleep it’d just been replay after replay of the day the kid had been poisoned only with a much worse ending—Tony watching helplessly as Peter drowned in his own blood, or got crushed by Rhino, or was impaled straight through by Scorpion. 

He shakes his head, trying and failing once again to scrape off the grip of all the fears that have been following him around the past few days. 

Nothing like this is going to happen to Peter ever again, he vows.

As if to cement his convictions, he says to May, “This won’t happen again, I promise you. I won’t let it.”

But of course May sees right through him, looking thoughtful as she says, “All any of us can do is our best, Tony. Even genius billionaires like yourself.”

Tony doesn’t reply, just looks back at Peter again, finally catching the teen’s eye. He smiles when Peter lifts a hand to wave at him, only to raise his eyebrows and nod pointedly at Michelle—laughing when Peter’s cheeks redden. The kid sends him a look, the meaning of which is clearly  _ stop it Mr. Stark. _ Outwardly Tony just smirks, but as soon as the kid’s attention wanders back to his friends his expression falls, gut churning with unease.

It’s true that he’s going to do everything he can to keep this amazing, brave, brilliant boy safe and well, he knows. After all, his greatest efforts have always been reserved for those he loves, and Peter is no exception. 

But the fact remains that May’s right. All any of them can do is their best.

Tony can only hope that his continues to be enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now you may be thinking - seeksak, that sounds ominous. 
> 
> Yes. Yes it does. 
> 
> :)
> 
> We love it when people come scream at us in the comments. Come hang out with us on tumblr: [blondsak](https://blondsak.tumblr.com) and [seekrest](https://seek-rest.tumblr.com).


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